Three dimensional unstructured grids for the solution of the Euler equations

Abstract

The advancing front technique is being used to develop a code to generate grids around complex 3-D configurations for use in computing the invisid flow solutions by the Euler equations. By the advancing front technique points are introduced concurrently with the connectivity information so that a separate library is not required. The generation of a 3-D grid is accomplished in several steps. First the boundaries of the domain to be gridded must be described by two-, three- or four-sided surface patches. Next, a background mesh is required to control the grid spacing and stretching throughout the domain. This coarse tetrahedral grid is not required to conform to any of the boundaries. Next, each of the patches is mapped to 2-D, triangulated by the advancing front technique and mapped back to 3-D. These triangles form the initial front for the generation of the final tetrahedral mesh.